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Broiled Partridge

Broiled partridges seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Broiled Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pluck and singe the partridges, then wipe them with a wet towel.

  2. Split them down the back, breaking the wishbone to flatten the breasts.

  3. Rub the partridges all over with cold butter.

Cook and serve

  1. Place them on a double wire gridiron and broil over a hot fire until brown.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with currant jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + curranttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main body of the dish; splitting and flattening them lets the meat cook evenly under direct heat.
Cold butter
Adds fat that keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown during broiling.
Currant jelly
Offers sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savoury game meat.

The step that matters

Broiling until brown. Direct heat browns the skin quickly, so the birds can dry out or scorch if left too close to the fire. Watching the colour and turning them keeps the meat juicy while the surface develops flavour.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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